It’s official: the GWS Giants have well and truly arrived in the big time, and the rest of the AFL is starting to take notice.
Forget their 10-point victory in the corresponding match last year and their famous victory over intracity rivals the Sydney Swans early in 2014, their 75-point thrashing of triple-reigning premiers Hawthorn has got to rank as easily their best victory in the AFL since entering the competition in 2012.
In a stunning performance for the ages, the Giants dominated from start to finish to let it be known that they have completed their growth from boys to men, and that the days of heavy defeats and excuses are well and truly over.
Though they conceded the first goal of the game four minutes in, the Giants would produce their best ever opening quarter, kicking seven majors to lead by 32 points at quarter-time.
The humiliation of the AFL powerhouses of the last four years wouldn’t end there, with the lead growing by each change: 45 points at half-time, 64 at three-quarter-time and eventually the final margin of 75 points.
The final score of 24.14 (158) would also go down as being the Giants’ highest score in an AFL match ever, eclipsing the 22.19 (151) they had kicked against Port Adelaide just a fortnight ago.
It is the biggest indication yet that the Giants’ forward line is starting to become the most feared and potent in the AFL; only the Adelaide Crows and North Melbourne have scored more points after six rounds. Defensively, the Giants are ranked fifth.
Instrumental to the victory were Steve Johnson, who kicked five first-half goals, Rory Lobb, who played easily the best match of his fledgling career and Toby Greene, who has turned his career and life around after a drunken incident in Melbourne saw him rubbed out for five weeks midway through the 2014 season.
It’s a fair thing to say that Greene has had his “Stevie J moment”, in reference to Johnson being involved in a drunken incident during the 2006 off-season which saw him suspended by the Geelong Cats for the first five rounds of the 2007 season.
Johnson then turned his career around and subsequently featured in the Cats’ 2007, 2009 and 2011 premiership winning teams, capping off his season of redemption with the Norm Smith Medal in the former year.
Unwanted by the Cats at the end of last year, the Giants pounced during last year’s trade period and so far the 32-year-old has relished in what is very likely to be his only season at Spotless Stadium.
Apart from his five first half goals, he was also instrumental in proving his old club wrong back in Round 2, when he kicked several goals in his new club’s 13-point win in Canberra early last month.
Perhaps Greene could learn a thing or two from Johnson and eventually become one of the greatest players the Giants have ever produced in their history, in the same manner that Johnson did at Geelong.
Tall forward Lobb enjoyed a breakout performance, kicking four goals. He has featured regularly since Shane Mumford suffered a season-ending ankle injury against Collingwood last year, but even with Mumford’s return Lobb has managed to keep his place in the Giants’ best 22.
The 75-point victory was proof enough that the 10-point win in the corresponding match last year was no fluke, though on that occasion the Hawks were missing the suspended Luke Hodge and Jordan Lewis, and injured defender James Frawley.
On this occasion, Alastair Clarkson’s men were missing only Jarryd Roughead due to a knee injury.
It also saw the pendulum continue to swing the Giants’ way, after the Hawks had won their first meeting by a whopping 162 points at the MCG midway through the 2012 season.
To date it remains the Giants’ worst ever defeat and one of many massive defeats the club endured in their first few years in the AFL as they fielded a young and inexperienced team week in, week out.
But fast forward to today and the climb up the ladder is set to continue, with many expecting the Giants to play finals this season following years of steady progress amidst the painful defeats.
After back-to-back wooden spoons in 2012 and 2013, the Giants started to climb the ladder under Leon Cameron in 2014, finishing 16th with six victories. The improvement continued last year with eleven wins and an 11th-place finish.
The Giants now sit fifth on the AFL ladder after six rounds, while Hawthorn have dropped to eighth. If the finals were to take place this weekend, then the two teams would be at it again at Spotless Stadium in an elimination final.
And wouldn’t it be appropriate if the Giants were to repeat Saturday night’s result and end the Hawks’ quest for a four-peat, though like champion teams, the Hawks will bounce back and will again be expected to feature deep in September this year.
There are those who have been there since year one: namely Phil Davis, Callan Ward, Tom Scully, Rhys Palmer, Jeremy Cameron, Dylan Shiel, Devon Smith, Toby Greene, Stephen Coniglio and Jonathan Patton, among others.
Together they would have endured some tough times but have been joined at the club in the subsequent years by the likes of Shane Mumford, Heath Shaw, Ryan Griffen, Joel Patfull and Steve Johnson, who were playing for clubs who regularly featured in finals, and in the cases of Mumford and Shaw, winning a premiership.
When you put together the group of players who have been there right from the very start along with those who started their careers elsewhere and have flourished in western Sydney, you get a team that no longer expects to be competitive every week, but expects to win each week.
That being said, the Giants’ next challenge will come in the form of Fremantle at Domain Stadium this Saturday night.
Though the Dockers have yet to win a match this season and are currently propping up the ladder (a far cry from this time last year when they were enjoying the view from the top of it), the Giants will be wary of what the men in purple can bring when they are at their best.
The Giants’ record in Perth is also atrocious, with the club’s average losing margin in six matches being 83.8 points. However, their most recent trip across the Nullarbor resulted in only a 21-point loss to the Dockers.
After that, Leon Cameron’s men will return home for matches against the Gold Coast Suns and Western Bulldogs, before facing tough road trips against the Adelaide Crows and Geelong Cats, both of whom are unbeaten at home this year.
That will then culminate in a milestone 100th match when they host the Sydney Swans, also their opponents in their first ever AFL match back in 2012, at Spotless Stadium in Round 12.
If the Giants can emerge from this tough patch with more than a positive win-loss ratio, then the pre-season expectations of a maiden finals berth in 2016 could be born into reality, and the AFL’s investment into western Sydney will be well and truly vindicated.
justinr
Guest
win-win for GWS & Cats I reckon
Woodson
Guest
Well pointed out Penster. Dillussional Pies fans reaching for short straws in a desperation for any acclaim. Last time I checked, the AFL national comp started in 1990. You can only brag about the years you LIVED / CELEBRATED.
Agent11
Guest
Yeah ok, anyone who doesn't like AFL has a chip on their shoulder then, they just don't want to admit that AFL is so much more exciting than the sport they follow LOLOL
Redb
Roar Guru
Thanks Agent11 for confirming what I'm talking about lol
Samantha
Roar Rookie
No Victoria did not give it to itself. http://www.smh.com.au/sport/melbourne-named-worlds-sporting-capital-20160420-gobebk.html
mattyb
Guest
But Agent11,Melbourne is the sporting capital of the world lol. Now one of your or my statements is true and one is just made up. Also,one is a reflection of what the world thinks and the other is a title one of the state's arrogantly just gave itself. No prizes for guessing which is which unfortunately
Agent11
Guest
"Sydney is the worst market in Australia for sport and they have a giant chip on their shoulder re anything from Melbourne." Melbourne people like to think this but it's just not true considering Sydney is globally more famous, more glamorous, has higher property value, higher GDP than Melbourne.
Redb
Roar Guru
That's all very well MDS 1970, however they have been gifted by the AFL with above average talent via draft picks. The rest of the competition has had to abide by the current draft rules. Only the Father-Son rule gives traditional clubs an edge on the Giants & Suns, however that is not even close to the advantage the Giants have been given. As an early supporter of the concept I have come to believe that the fragmented nature of various football codes in this country will make it very difficult even with success for the Giants to repay the millions spent to the competition via bums on seats and TV ratings. Sydney is the worst market in Australia for sport and they have a giant chip on their shoulder re anything from Melbourne. It will forever limit their potential.
Penster
Guest
That 4 in a row was not in the AFL era.
paulywalnuts
Guest
It gets funnier still. Johnson had a day out, so did his team, congratulations to them. Giving away a hundred metre penalty is nevertheless both stupid and pointless. Trying to make assumptions of the type you seem to make (particularly with your track record) are even stupider than trying to working yourself into a lather about a bit of irrelevant argy-bargy. But do carry on. I know you will.
Don Freo
Guest
That would be "fiddle" as in "fiddle the books...dishonest...unfair..." That is so in keeping with the Hodge/Hawthorn value system. Stevie J, 5 goals. His opponent? Won a 50 metre penalty...but conceded 5 goals to his opponent. Stevie J played Hodge like a violin. Hodge is now out of his depth where football is involved.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Brilliant Punter, absolutely brilliant! :D
paulywalnuts
Guest
Hilarious actually. To suggest that any link between the Giant's superb performance and that little bit of silliness was a non sequitur, would be an insult to non sequiturs. Personally I think there's very little that's going to stop GWS from becoming football's next powerhouse. And it may well be true that Hawthorn and Hodge are on the wane, both of which are inevitable. But what is undeniably true is that in that particular incident, Hodge played Johnson like an absolute fiddle.
Paul W
Guest
Funny hey. Wonder why Jon Brown said that the Giants are walking taller with Stevie J in the side. Also wonder what Leon Cameron thought about it.
paulywalnuts
Guest
ROFL, sending a message. If you think any player in this competition is going to read anything more into that little pantomime than a lack of discipline on behalf of the Johnson, then you know nothing about AFL footballers.
Punter
Guest
Kaks , its not the latte, its those dangerous soccer hooligans you have with all that chanting and wearing of red and black merchandise that stops me venturing out west, great food though. Its when you venture to the east trying our caramel latte and trying to look cool on our beaches in your black and red shirts, dead give away mate.. Whereas the GWS fans get away with it, they don't wear their merchandises and blend in. They do give it away when all 2 of them start going Giants clap, clap when they see the seagulls over a chip.
Paul W
Guest
Worth every centimetre to send a message to Stevie's team mates that they wouldn't be bullied by the thugs from Hawthorn and that's the way it panned out. Also sent the same message to the rest of the competition, Hodgey's bluff has been called.
clipper
Guest
Mister Football - when I was talking capacity problems I was referring to the big games where there is a limit and they can't get more than 20k to boost their average, therefore it is bought down by less attended games. Same as Perth (with the Eagles and Freemantle) - the average would go up if the capacity was greater. The same doesn't apply to the Roosters - they never reach capacity, so their average is a true indicator of league support in the east.
clipper
Guest
So, from those metrics, would you also class, in your terms, the Storm as a failure? There is the other view that you hang around with other like minded code people. I heard a few people comment on GWS, guess it's where you are. They got a couple of pages in the papers and mentioned in news.
mds1970
Roar Guru
No doubt about that. He was stale and needed a change if his career was still going to have any life in it. Geelong could see that. He'd given the Cats many years of great service, but it was time to move on.